“European Union leaders presented a determined front to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to penalize EU businesses and scupper the Iran nuclear deal.”
“The White Helmets were founded in Turkey by a former British MI5 officer named James Le Mesurier. The group has received at least $55 million from the UK government and an additional $23 million from the U.S. government, both of whom have regime change interests in the region.”
“A controversial Israeli law passed by the country’s parliament, the Knesset, in 2011, allows Israeli individuals, corporations, and even the state itself to punish anyone who supports the boycott of Israel itself, or Israeli owned businesses.”
Read more: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2018/2/5/israels-attempt-to-criminalise-bds
“Syria’s government on Tuesday rejected efforts led by the United Nations to form a committee to rewrite Syria’s constitution, the main result of a peace congress among Syrian groups in Russia last month. Participants at the Sochi congress, a centerpiece of diplomatic efforts by Damascus’ ally Russia to end the war, agreed on Jan. 30 to set up the constitutional committee in Geneva, and to hold democratic elections in Syria.”
“The strategy, the first such document to be issued by the Pentagon in roughly a decade, represented an historic shift from the ostensible justification for US global militarism for nearly two decades: the so-called war on terrorism. ‘Great power competition—not terrorism—is now the primary focus of US national security,’ Mattis said in his speech, which accompanied the release of an 11-page declassified document outlining the National Defense Strategy in broad terms. A lengthier classified version was submitted to the US Congress, which includes the Pentagon’s detailed proposals for a massive increase in military spending.”
“In just one extraordinary year, Trump has destabilized the delicate duality that has long been the foundation for U.S. foreign policy: favoring war over diplomacy, the Pentagon over the State Department, and narrow national interest over international leadership. But in a globalizing world interconnected by trade, the Internet, and the rapid proliferation of nuclear-armed missiles, walls won’t work. There can be no Fortress America.”
Read more: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176373/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_tweeting_while_rome_burns/
“Under the guise of stopping violent crime, a County Commissioner in Cook County, Illinois, went to New York City late last week to request that the United Nations deploy foreign troops in Chicago to tackle the city’s ‘quiet genocide.'”
“The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to do, if anything, about the emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing more and more attention — with bitcoin climbing above $10,000. The second question is whether to issue official versions.”
“Though the treaty is still imperfect, it does raise hope for more trade and therefore higher living standards. What is downright humiliating for Americans is that the treaty became better only after the US withdrew from it.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/this-trade-treaty-got-better-when-the-us-bailed/
“The five are being sought for five different crimes, including rebellion, sedition and embezzlement in a Spanish investigation into their roles in pushing for secession for Catalonia. In jailing the former regional Government officials the judge said that the suspects’ actions were ‘premeditated and perfectly prepared and organised.’ Judge Carmen Lamela said for the past two years they had systematically ignored decisions issued by the Constitutional Court in their push for independence.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5045879/Spain-warns-run-patience-Catalonia.html